The U.S. House of Representatives passed U.S. Senator Marco Rubio’s (R-FL) Pensacola and Perdido Bays Estuary of National Significance Act (S. 50) to direct the Environmental Protection Agency to formally enroll the Pensacola and Perdido Bays Estuary Program (PPBEP)...
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) released a statement on his nomination by President-elect Donald J. Trump to serve as the United States Secretary of State. “Leading the U.S. Department of State is a tremendous responsibility, and I am honored by the trust President...
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) joined The World Over with Raymond Arroyo to discuss President-elect Donald Trump’s historic victory, the Democrats’ response to the election, foreign policy challenges facing our nation, and more. See below for highlights and watch the...
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) joined America Reports to discuss President-elect Donald Trump’s historic victory, Democrats’ proclamation of “resistance,” and the failure of identity politics. See below for highlights and watch the full interview on YouTube and...
Senator Rubio's office is pleased to be issuing a limited number of tickets to President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration ceremony, which will occur on January 20, 2025 at the West Front of the U.S. Capitol. Floridians interested in receiving tickets should fill out...
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) joined Hannity to discuss President-elect Donald Trump’s historic victory. See below for highlights and watch the full interview on YouTube and Rumble. On the ongoing realignment among American voters: “The Republican Party now reflects...
It’s been over a year since I helped pass legislation to give the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) secretary the authority to fire senior management based on performance. But with only a few officials reportedly removed from their positions since then and too many veterans still denied care due to outrageous backlogs, the Obama Administration is still dragging its feet on bringing real change to the VA.
Last month, it was revealed that veterans’ disability claims were deliberately and wrongfully shredded by VA employees in Los Angeles, despite existing policies prohibiting such practice. Inadequate or improper training of VA employees is inexcusable, and I am concerned that this callous destruction of documentation is not unique to the staff in the Los Angles VA Regional Office, but is part of a larger cultural problem at the VA. It is one of my deepest concerns to see that the VA improves to better serve our veterans, so today I urged the VA to complete their investigation of the VA Regional Office in St. Petersburg for any similar instances and to send me the final report as soon as it is complete.
The reforms to begin fixing the VA are right there in the law, but now the president and VA secretary actually need to fully implement them and root out the unacceptable shortcomings we have seen in this system. So today I also urged VA Deputy Inspector General Linda Halliday, to look into how many VA officials and employees in the State of Florida, and throughout the nation, have faced disciplinary action because of excessive waits for VA health care appointments and continued delays in decisions on VA disability compensation claims and appeals.
The stall in holding senior managers with bad performance accountable makes it clear that additional authorities are needed to deal with the full scope of the problems at the VA. That’s why I introduced the “Department of Veterans Affairs Accountability Act of 2015” earlier this year. This new legislation will leave the VA secretary with no excuse but to hold people accountable for the dysfunction and incompetence plaguing our VA system, while protecting whistleblowers from retaliation. We must show our veterans the respect they have earned by removing any employees with terrible performance from the system our veterans rely on.